SCIENCE DES ÉMOTIONS : Evaluation of a Psychosocial Skills Development Program for Middle School Students

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Socio-emotional curriculum - Science des Emotions: The "Science des Émotions" program is a structured socio-emotional learning curriculum delivered through 8 sessions integrated into the "vie de classe" period.

Study summary

The goal of this Quasi-experimental cluster randomized trial is:

* 1a. Primary purpose: to determine the feasibility of the "Science des Emotions" curriculum through a participatory and translational research methodology, involving educators in evaluating programme fidelity, acceptability, perceived usefulness, and overall experience through quantitative and qualitative measures.
* 1b. Primary purpose: to assess the feasibility of the "Science des Emotions" curriculum from students' perspectives, including feasibility, acceptability, perceived usefulness, and overall experience, using quantitative and qualitative measures.
* 1c. Primary purpose: to determine whether the "Science des Emotions" curriculum improves psychosocial skills, emotional awareness, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among 6th- and 7th-grade students.
* 2a. Secondary purpose: to determine whether the programme affects peer relationships, perceived closeness with classmates, and problematic behaviours among students.
* 2b. Secondary purpose: to determine whether the programme improves classroom climate reported by educators.
* 2c. Secondary purpose: to determine whether the programme improves educators' psychosocial skills and emotional awareness.
* 2d. Secondary purpose: to examine whether improvements in emotional awareness mediate the effect of the programme on educators' psychosocial skills.
* 2e. Secondary purpose: to examine whether improvements in emotional awareness and adaptive emotion regulation mediate the effect of the programme on students' psychosocial skills.
* 2f. Secondary purpose: to explore moderating factors of programme effectiveness, including students' behavioural difficulties and socio-economic background.
* 2g. Secondary purpose: to evaluate programme implementation through session-level assessments of clarity, feasibility, satisfaction, and visual materials completed by educators after each session. Changes in knowledge related to emotions and emotion regulation will also be assessed among students and educators.

This analysis will support recommendations for large-scale implementation and public policy.

Participants

Educators and educational staff delivering the programme (n = 100) Students aged 10-13 participating in the programme (n = 2400)

Measures

Primary objectives

* Students (both arms) will complete psychosocial skills, emotion regulation, and emotional awareness measures at pre-test (t0), post-test (t1), and 5-month follow-up (t2).
* Students in the intervention arm will complete a post-programme questionnaire assessing satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and acceptability, and may participate in a semi-structured interview assessing feasibility, usefulness, and overall experience.
* Educators in the intervention arm will complete a post-programme questionnaire assessing implementation fidelity and perceived usefulness, and may participate in a semi-structured interview assessing acceptability, usefulness, and overall experience.

Secondary objectives

* Students (both arms) will complete peer relationship, perceived closeness, problematic behaviour, and socio-demographic measures.
* Educators (both arms) will complete classroom climate, psychosocial skills, emotional awareness, and knowledge questionnaires at t0, t1, and t2. Schools will also provide absenteeism and behavioural data.
* Students (both arms) will complete an ad hoc knowledge questionnaire at t0, t1, and t2.
* Educators in the intervention arm will complete session-level feasibility, clarity, and satisfaction measures after each session.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Educators' Implementation Fidelity and Perceived Usefulness Assessed by a Study-Specific Questionnaire — Immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months after baseline).
  Implementation fidelity and perceived usefulness will be assessed using a study-specific questionnaire completed by educators in the intervention arm.
• Educators' Acceptability, Perceived Usefulness, and Overall Experience Assessed by Semi-Structured Interviews — Immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months after baseline).
  Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with educators in the intervention arm at the end of program implementation to assess acceptability, perceived usefulness, and overall experience of the intervention.
• Students' Satisfaction, Perceived Usefulness, and Acceptability Assessed by a Study-Specific Questionnaire — Immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months after baseline).
  Implementation satisfaction, perceived usefulness and acceptability will be assessed using a study-specific questionnaire completed by students in the intervention arm.
• Students' Faisability, Perceived Usefulness, and Overall Experience Assessed via Semi-Structured Interviews — Immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months after baseline).
  Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with students in the intervention arm at the end of program implementation to assess acceptability, perceived usefulness, and overall experience of the intervention.
• Student Psychosocial skills Assessed by the Psychosocial skills scale — Baseline, immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months), and 5 months post-intervention (approximately 13 months from baseline)
  The Psychosocial skills scale is a 17-item self-report questionnaire assessing psychosocial skills. For each item, students indicate how frequently the described situation applies to them using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 ("never") to 4 ("always"). Mean scores are calculated for four dimensions: emotional competence, cognitive competence, social competence, and assertiveness. Higher scores indicate greater psychosocial skills.
• Students' Emotion Regulation Assessed by the Contextualized Emotion Regulation Survey for Adolescents (CERSA) — Baseline, immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months), and 5 months post-intervention (approximately 13 months from baseline)
  Situation 2 of the Contextualized Emotion Regulation Survey for Adolescents (CERSA) will assess emotion regulation in a hypothetical situation t (i.e., preparing an important oral presentation in class and feeling that they have forgotten what they had prepared just before presenting). Responses are rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("not at all like this") to 7 ("entirely like this"). Higher scores indicate greater emotion regulation in the given context.
• Students' Acceptance Assessed by the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) — Baseline, immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months), and 5 months post-intervention (approximately 13 months from baseline)
  Acceptance capacity will be assessed using the Acceptance subscale of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("almost never") to 5 ("almost always"). Higher scores indicate greater use of emotion regulation and acceptance strategies.
• Students' Emotional Awareness Assessed by the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire FR (EAQ) — Baseline, immediately post-intervention (approximately 8 months), and 5 months post-intervention (approximately 13 months from baseline)
  The Emotion Awareness Questionnaire FR (EAQ) is a 30-item self-report questionnaire assessing emotional awareness in students. For each item, participants indicate the extent to which the described feeling or behavior applies to them using a 3-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("not true") to 3 ("true"), with 2 corresponding to ("sometimes true"). Higher scores indicate greater emotional awareness.

Trial sites (1)